Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Grow. Cook. Eat. (Humpday Giveaway!!!)

While I can't recall exactly where it was that I first encountered Willi Galloway, I can tell you that I was instantly smitten. Positively radiating goodness, Willi's blog Diggin Food captivated me from the get-go. It's a digital cornucopia of organic growing and cooking tips and suggestions.

And Willi should know. The former West Coast Editor of Organic Gardening magazine, she now pens the weekly column "The Gardener" on the green living section of Apartment Therapy, offers gardening advice every Tuesday morning on Seattle's NPR call-in show Greendays, teaches a joint gardening and cooking class with James Beard award-nominated chef Matthew Dillion at The Corson Building in Seattle, and (because, clearly, not near enough!) also hosts an , online garden-to-table cooking show, Grow. Cook. Eat., with her husband Jon from their Portland, Oregon home.

Fortunately for all of us, Willi has distilled that massive collection of knowledge into a wonderful new book, Grow. Cook. Eat.. Her publicist recently sent me a review copy and I can't recommend it enough. Not only is it lovely to behold, it's imminently practical to use and apply. This is the gardening book you absolutely want to have on hand this coming growing season.

I had an opportunity to ask Willi a few of my own growing questions recently and wanted to share them with you here today:

1) What got you into growing and gardening? Were your parents gardeners, or is this a passion you cultivated yourself?

I grew up in Wyoming, which is not the most hospitable place for a vegetable garden, but my mom had a huge garden when I was little (about 1/3 of our backyard). Some of my very earliest memories are being in the garden with my mom, picking strawberries, looking up at corn that was taller than I, and generally snacking on whatever I came across. English peas were and are still one of my very favorite things to eat right out in the garden. In high school I worked at a nursery, where my job every spring was to transplant thousands of tomato seedlings, and I worked on a ranch in college maintaining the perennial borders around the ranch house.

2) Do you have a favorite thing you grow? I'm especially fond of the ease of growing culinary herbs.

My favorite things to grow are things that are really hard, if not impossible, to find at a regular grocery store. Especially pea shoots and squash blossoms and unusual varieties like 'Golden India' snow pea, which has these amazingly beautiful two toned purple flower and pale yellow pea pods and 'Purple Peacock' broccoli, which is a cross between kale and broccoli and produces yummy kale-like leaves and tons of tender broccoli side shoots. I also love to grow herbs, because adding fresh herbs is the easiest way to make a ho hum, regular dinner taste way better. I grow gobs of basil, because in my mind, you really cannot have too much of it.

3) For someone just getting interested in gardening, do you have any "beginner" crops to suggest to them, that typically grow easy in most climates?

Cherry tomatoes are great because they grow fast, ripen up early, produce tons of fruit and grow well in containers or the ground. I also think planting lettuce seedlings is nice because you can harvest a homegrown head of lettuce in just about a month. And radishes are wonderful, because they sprout in just a few days and are ready to harvest in only 4 to 6 weeks. Plus, freshly pulled radishes are so crisp and flavorful, nothing like the hot, pity little balls that are so often found at grocery stores.

4) On the other hand, are there any crops you find to be particularly difficult to grow, that are worth the effort, but that gardeners should be prepared to handle challenges with?

Big brassicas, especially cauliflower and broccoli, can be very finicky, especially in spring. But it is very satisfying to harvest them and a lot of people don't realize that their leaves are edible and very tasty. I think of them as a kind of a consolation prize if my cauliflower doesn't work out. You can use the broccoli and cauliflower greens just like collards. Melons are difficult in my cool Pacific Northwest climate. They require a lot of babying in order to produce fruit, but harvesting a homegrown melons is really one of the best simple pleasures.

5) I'm often perplexed when it comes to harvesting, finding myself wondering how best to remove pickings without harming the crop. Any suggestions for learning the best techniques for gentle harvesting?

I find that a lot of people, even experienced gardeners, wait to harvest until the plant looks like it does in the grocery store. This is not a bad strategy at all, but you'll often miss out on other stages of harvest (i.e. beets can be harvested from marble size on up and their greens are very tasty at any stage) and other edible parts of the plant (like squash blossom or radish pods or kale flower buds). In my book I focused on trying to be very specific about what parts of the plant are edible, when the best times to harvest are, and the best way to harvest each of the edible parts. In general, if you tug on a fruit and it doesn't come off, use scissors to snip it off. I also keep old steak knives all around my garden. I slide the blade just under the soil line to harvest heads of lettuce, broccoli rabe, bok choy and I use the knives to sever individual kale, swiss chard and collard leaves from plants, as well as peppers and eggplants and big tomatoes. I buy the knives at estate sales and stab them into the soil at the edge of my beds.

Because you, too, should have access to such a fantastic piece of literature, Willi's publisher, Sasquatch Books, has graciously offered one small measure reader a copy of Grow. Cook. Eat.. To be entered into the giveaway, simply leave a comment listing your favorite thing to grow, or something you'd like to grow in the future. For me, it's two things: mushrooms (outdoors) and citrus fruit (indoors). What about you? What dirt from what crop is itching to get under your green, growing thumb?

The giveaway will run through next Wednesday, January 25th, midnight EST. Canadians, feel free to enter. Do be sure to leave a means of contacting you, should you be the winner, via either a link back to your own blog or website or with your email address in your comment.

Winner or not, do give Willi's book and blog a look. She's got the golden touch when it comes to all things garden-related.

*Don't forget, there's still time to enter last week's giveaway for a copy of Jenna Woginrich's book Barnheart!

UPDATE: The winner of Grow. Cook. Eat., as deemed by the Random Widget, is lucky #27. Liz C. I'll be getting in touch soon for your mailing information. Thank you so very much to everyone that entered. It looks like we're a happily growing bunch!

My favorite thing to grow is peas. So yummy off the vine and easy. The new thing for this year will be brussel sprouts. Never tried to grow or cook them so it should be interesting. If it doesn't work out I'll just eat peas.

My favorite thing to grow is herbs - I use them in cooking, my bath and dry them myself to give as gifts. They are great to grow indoors in the winter and just tend to make everything special. This yeara new crop for us is going to be celery! We didn't think we could grow it where we live and we didn't know there are so many different varieties. Wish us luck!

I really, really want to have my own huge herb garden and citrus trees. Living in Southern California, the weather is perfect --- I just don't have a location yet! Thank goodness rosemary grows everywhere here.

The book looks amazing. Also, I just purchased your canning book - I will be canning my own tomatoes for the first time - thank you!

Love your BLOG. Our favorite thing to grow would have to be tomatoes which is a challenge here in the Pacific Northwest but by starting early indoors, transplanting to our raised beds once the weather allows, and plenty of water we can get several varieties to produce.

One thing we would like to be more successful at is growing Basil. Have tried numerous methods but just can't seem to get a decent crop to grow to maturity.

I have just moved to a 4 acre acereage and CANNOT wait to get my hands dirty. There is already a huge but pitiful looking garden plot and I've been pouring over seed catalogues making plans. For maximum success I'm focusing on thigs that are easy to grow in my area (Alberta)that we like to eat - potatoes, tomatoes, peas, garlic, herbs, but the thing I'm most excited about are the golden beets. I go crazy over them, and really hope they will grow well in this climate.

I absolutely love growing squash and melons. There are so many fantastic varieties you'll never find in a store and rarely find at the farmer's market. Last year we grew ten varieties of melon and six varieties of squash and we loved them all!

I'm itching to grow *anything*, after my recent move from year-round gardening in SoCal to snowy New England! I do hope to have better luck here with peas & lettuce, and am eager to start herbs for cooking!

One of my "Operation 2012" goals is to plant a veggie garden this year -- I live in an apartment was a spacious patio, so I'm reading up on container gardening. My seed catalogue included a blueberry plant made to grow in a pot, so I am super-excited to try it!

I love to grow herbs. Even as an apartment-dweller, I've always had herbs planted on a balcony. I'd LOVE to one day grow meyer lemons and figs. I'd also like to have tomatoes, peppers, eggplant...sigh. Maybe, just maybe, when I move out of my apartment this summer , I'll have some space to start a garden of my own!

I dream of growing a beautiful, bountiful crop of broccoli and cabbages. Willi's right; they are finicky. It's always one thing or another and they have never done well in my garden. Maybe this will be the year.

In the past, our place has been too deeply shady for any veggies. We've lost a few trees in recent years, though, so this year I'm going to try to plant in the sunny spots the trees left behind! I'm going to try tomatoes, squash, and basil. We'll see how it goes.

I like growing tomatoes- we usually start them from seed. I like trying different varieties and seeing what they do in my garden. We have a really great spot for them with lots of heat, so they usually do well!!

Ah! This looks fabulous! I loved growing raspberries last year...and our little tiny corner garden was SO bountiful (well, for how small it is!) Every morning my kiddos and I would go out first thing and pluck off the 15 or so delicious and perfectly ripe rasps and pop them right into our mouth! And the best thing is...I didn't even plan t the bush, the people renting before us did. No work, just good eats!Sarah M (sslamast@gmail.com)

I have two garden loves, no way to put one above the other. First in the calendar are sugar snap peas, I eat them right off the vine, many nights I work late and they are my dinner in season! Then along come cherry tomatoes, I like a variety called Sweet 100, they're practically candy, just enough tart to not be thrown out of the tomato family :) They are small, which I prefer, I have no use for a "cherry" tomato so big I can't just pop the whole thing into my mouth!

I really want to grow enough greens for year-round salads. I also want to get good at brassicas. Almost everything I planted last summer, including purple peacocok, failed. Here's to more guidance and a new year!(The book looks stunning!)

Wow! She is a storehouse of information! I would love this book!Let's see, I love to grow medicinal herbs that I use all of the time- like calendula and comfrey. We finally have enough space to grow some corn, so I'm super excited about that prospect!

Thanks for the opportunity! we are building our first raised bed this spring and I already have the packets of heirloom variety veggies here from Etsy. Very excited! Looking forward to building a bean teepee as well.

I grew up with a big garden, but this year is my first garden of my own at my own house, so everything is exciting to me this year, but I have to say I'm especially excited to grow dried beans...we never had them in our garden growing up and the gorgeous pictures in the seed catalogs have me longing for them.

I enjoy your blog so much! Every year I have to have strawberries, tomatoes, and onions, I love fresh salsa! also I just purchased your books and I'm thinking about having my own bees! Kathy Cooper kcooper11@insight.rr.com

Ohh! The book looks divine.My dream is to own a lemon tree. The winters are a bit cold in the Pacific Northwest but old fashioned X-mas lights can take the edge off the coldest snaps. Little trees all lit up sound almost as delightful as having my own lemons!

The only thing that was grown by my parents at our intercity home when I was a child were tomatoes in a container. Its funny how I though how cool it was that we had this in our tiny back yard. At our home now we grew tomatoes , green bell peppers, cucumbers, Thai peppers, lemon grass, Thai basil and regular basil. Mint and chives. Our house is on the market and hope to purchase something with more out door space and less indoor space. I would love to grow most of the stuff we eat and hard to find things!

I love growing my own eggplant, which does really well in containers so I can save my garden bed for other things. My other favorite is our peach tree that produced three peaches in its first year. I can't wait to see what we get this summer.

The book looks fabulous...my favorite thing to grow are heritage lettuces and greens as well as culinary and medicinal herbs. I dream of growing a bumper tomato crop but the climate in the Pacific Northwest makes that challenging...maybe Willi has some tips to make that dream a reality! trinalea.briggs@gmail.com

My favorite thing to grow is tomatoes...I love the smell of the plants and the deliciousness of a fresh from the garden tomato diced up with basil and garlic and oil and slathered on fresh bread. There are so many things I hope to grow in our new home...berries, asparagus, sweet potatoes, fruit trees...and on and on...

Oh, the book sounds like quite a find! My specialties here in the low desert are short day onions, watermelon, turnips, and yard long beans. One thing I hope to plant is a satsuma tangerine. gogogardener.ca@gmail.com

I currently live in an apartment so I only grow herbs and tomatoes. I grew up with citrus trees so I look forward to some day having several indoor citrus trees. I miss plucking a ripe orange off of the tree and enjoying it right then and there.

I must have been sitting here for 10 minutes trying to pick a favorite, and its so hard. I just started growing microgreens, so I'm pretty excited about those right now. I'm especially looking forward to incorporating more permaculture this spring.

I can't wait to harvest asparagus from my garden. Watched them grown to ferns last year and am hoping either this spring or next I'll be able to harvest some delicious spears of my own. Some things are definitely worth the wait! ;) Kelly

This book is definitely on my to read list. It looks like a wonderful resource. My favorite thing to grow is our raspberries. Although, I generally love everything from our garden. (Only grow what you love!) I'm looking forward to getting in our fruit trees this year.

I love to garden. Now that I've viewed Willi's blog - I'll be expanding my greens section & looking into eating edibles such as broccoli & cauliflower leaves (I never knew)! I'll be adding her blog link to the long list of others such as yours that I resource for good info. BTW - I received your Keeping Chickens book for Christmas and love it! Candice redwingblckbrd@yahoo.com

I love to grow okra and cucumbers. They are so hardy and productive--sure crops! I'm trying out several different versions of beans for drying this year, and I'm most excited for a black garbanzo bean from Baker Creek.

My favorite thing to grow is snow peas, and this year I am trying garlic for the first time. I am also going to try melons this year (I also live in the Pacific North West so my chances aren't good, but I am hoping anyway!).

My favorite (read: most successful) thing to grow is potatoes. The best part is the inevitability of accidental potatoes from the seed potato you didn't find in the garden during fall harvest! I am just now starting to grow mushrooms indoors (oyster for now), so I'm very much excited to see how it goes.

I love growing Fraise de Bois. They are so delicious and you never find them at the supermarkets or farmer's markets here in Los Angeles. They are intended to go into salads but I eat them as I pick them so they never make it into the house. I have them in pots with my herbs and the raised vegetable beds. I love Willi's blog. I would like to grow more peas and pick the pea shoots like you suggested in her blog. I would love to have a copy of her book. Fingers crossed!

I love to grow everything. If I can grow it, I'm so happy. I'd have to say my VERY FAVORITE thing to grow in my Washington State garden is cantaloupe. I have grown them for two years and have gotten the sweetest, most wonderful (albeit little) cantaloupe that are so wonderfu.I do wish I could grow sweet potatoes. They are so wonderful and yummy. I love them and wish I could grow them. I might try to grow them in our greenhouse, but it's a small greenhouse with minimal lights.

Greetings Ashley! Thank you for all you have to offer – your wonderful books I’ve enjoyed and now, thanks to Willi’s recommendation, I know you have this amazing blog! I want to share my favorite thing to grow AND something I would like to grow. My favorite thing to grow would have to be my lone lemon tree, Meyer. I’ve had my little guy for about a year and he thrives outside on my potting bench in summer and in a sunny east facing window during the winter months. Yummy lemons! Luscious smelling blossoms! Since my back yard is completely filled with raise garden beds and a small greenhouse, my goal is to advance food production to the front yard. I look forward to building a grape arbor, so I might grow seedless grapes for fresh eating, as well as canning jellies, jams and juice. Gracious gardening!! Rita (ritadkerr@gmail.com)

Things I want to grow is too big of a list! My favorites to grow are probably fava beans and basil. This is the first year I grew basil in the ground instead of in pots, and man, that stuff was bulletproof! It seemed like something that would be finicky, but instead it grew like weeds. But in a good way! :)

My favorite thing to grow is peas. They have pretty flowers, can be grown up any structure and are yummy to eat. Tomatoes are a close second or a tie....so many types and colors and tastes....so little room (right now) to grow them.

Citrus is on my want to grow list. I have a dwarf lime and orange tree I ordered through Spring Hill nursery and they haven't died yet....

I love gardening and have had a one for 35 years! This year we'll be starting a new garden at the farm where we'll be moving in the next several months. Turned the soil for the first time and picked up some rocks, but nothing like what I've been working with. Looking forward to growing in dirt instead of rocks:)

I LOVE LOVE LOVE fresh kale--it's so easy to grow, it's constantly regenerating, not to mention its nutritious benefits. My boyfriend and I are constantly running down to the garden to grab some no matter what we're eating for dinner!

Thanks for this great offer! What a marvelous looking book! My favorite thing to grow...toss up between basil and tomatoes. Something totally new I really want to try? Tomatillos (I love canning salsa!) and Okra!

I can't wait for this book - I've been a long time reader of Willi's blog. I have a very short Canadian growing season and I'd love to be able to grow lots of peppers and eggplants (many attempts have been unsuccessful - I think a greenhouse is in order soon). My current favorite thing to grow is herbs of any kind - rosemary, parsley, sage, thyme, mint!

In my family, tomatoes and green beans are the big favorites. I like to try something new every year - especially if it is an heirloom variety. I'd love to win the book so I could have some new ideas of what to do with my veggies - or what new veggies to try. Thanks for the chance.

Though I am a Seattle gardener I have great sun exposure and two years in row I have purchased watermelon plants -- initially just for fun and aesthetics (they were mixed in with trailing group of Jarrahdale pumpkin plants on a hillside) -- but to my surprise I hv produced the cutest little single melons both years - each around 7" long (perfect for 2!). I feel a bit bold now and I would like to try and grow an heirloom melon..maybe Boule d'Or

I love to grow tomatoes and cucumbers! And squash! :-) It's hard to pick just one favorite! I really want to expand my garden this year and would love this book to help me. Found your blog from Pinterest by the way!

I planted some raspberry tranfers from a friends garden last year and I'm really looking forward to havin fresh raspberries to eat and can this spring. It will be my first crop of anything. Ever.www.varner@gmail.com

There are always things that I don't feel like I have room to grow. I've never done winter squash, so this summer I'm going to make it happen. In the future I hope to have room for okra and sweet potatoes.jordypants@yahoo.com

I am really loving all the snow peas that I am getting this year. It is my first time gardening by myself and very much my first time winter gardening. I am now looking for as many new snow pea recipes that I can find in order to cook them all!

There aren't many things I don't want to grow, but I think the top of my list is cherry tomatoes, because I love them and they are often too pricey. And paste tomatoes for sauce making. I love 'maters :)

Aside from all the non-plant things we grow on our farm, I'm looking forward to planting up a new vegetable garden this Spring - my first in several years! I love fresh beets and their greens, snap peas for garden snacking, warm cherry tomatoes right off the vines, sweet kale after the first hard frost - oh, just all of it is so exciting! This book looks like a dream. Thanks for the chance!

I love growing pea pods - they are always much better than the ones i find in the store. I grow herbs and parsley and last year I started drying my own and I am enjoying that so much.Lorylory1@frontier.com

There are very few food crops I can think of that I wouldn't want to grow, but currently the best is to have year round herbs for cooking, a beautiful santa rosa plum tree-- I love everything about plums, from the blossoms to the tree shape to the colors and taste of the fruit to the jam and baking possibilities, blueberry bushes for their beauty esp. fall and spring color and...... I would love to have space to grow asparagus, the fronds (if that's what they're called) are wonderfully frothy looking. Christina

I love growing and then storing garlic. Don't ask me why but I love the way it looks as it grows. I think about it all winter while it is slowly germinating in my garden and I feel joy in the spring when i finally see it poking up through the straw mulch.

About Me

Making an attempt to craft a good life with my husband and young son in a small mountain community. I find pleasure in the light at dusk, atlases, hard cider, cat antics, dog breath, baby giggles, homemade ice cream and snorty laughter.
Author of the "Homemade Living" book series (Lark Books) which showcases topics related to small-scale homesteading and some of the diverse ways people are reconnecting with their food and food communities and taking up sustainable food practices.
I also host a bi-monthly column every Friday on Design*Sponge:http://www.designspongeonline.com/category/small-measures.
E-mail me directly at: ashleyadamsenglish(at)gmail.com.

The Best LIttle Chicken Coop in Candler

"The Big Problem is nothing more or less than the sum total of countless little everyday choices, most of them made by us and most of the rest of them made in the name of our needs and desires and preferences."-Michael Pollan